This invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method and a program, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and method and a program by which a photograph slideshow with music can be provided to the user.
A slideshow function of automatically displaying still pictures in order after every predetermined interval of time such as one second is incorporated in various apparatus such as a personal computer which can handle still pictures picked up by a digital camera. In some of such apparatus, a tune to be used as BGM upon slideshow can be selected in accordance with a liking of its user.
Consequently, the user can enjoy still pictures, which are displayed automatically and successively, while enjoying a favorite tune without performing any operation for causing the still pictures to be displayed one by one.
Also an apparatus is available which has a slideshow function which does not display still pictures (picked up still pictures) fetched by the apparatus as they are but successively displays still pictures to which various effects are applied (refer to, for example, “DoCoMo mova P506iC Photococktail™”, Internet <URL: http://panasonic.jp/mobile/p506ic/photo/index.html>: hereinafter referred to as Non-Patent Document 1).
In this instance, the user can select still pictures to be reproduced, a type of an effect and a tune of BGM to produce a content with BGM with which the still pictures to which the effect is applied can be displayed automatically and successively.
In such a slideshow (slideshow content with BGM) as described above, image and sound reproduction (outputting or displaying) timings are sometimes displaced from each other such that, for example, although reproduction of BGM comes to an end, display of a still picture continues or conversely, although display of a still picture comes to an end and a dark image or the like is displayed, BGM does not come to an end. In such an instance, the slideshow is low in degree of completeness (amusing property) and may possibly degrade the degree of satisfaction of the user who enjoys the slideshow.
In other words, in such a slideshow content with BGM as described above, the image and sound reproduction timings preferably coincide with each other. In this instance, the slideshow content has a high degree of completeness and provides a high degree of satisfaction to the user who enjoys the content.
As one of methods which make the image and sound reproduction timings of such a slideshow content with BGM coincide with each other, a synchronization technique by manual operation which uses a video editing apparatus as represented by production of a promotion video medium by post production has been established. However, since a slideshow content is produced by manual operation for every tune and every image, a long period of time and a high cost are required for the production. Besides, since the production work is complicated and difficult, high skill is required.
Meanwhile, another method is available wherein control information which associates sound data and still picture data with each other is prepared and is used to reproduce the still picture data in accordance with timings of the sound data. The method is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 3334799 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).
However, the sound data and the still picture data in this instance are particular data designated by the control information and cannot be designated arbitrarily by the user. If it is tried to reproduce or output sound data or still picture data as a slideshow, then since the reproduction time is different among different tunes or depending upon the number of images or the like, it is difficult to control the reproduction correctly with control information prepared in advance.
Thus, as a method wherein the user arbitrarily sets sound and still pictures to be reproduced as a slideshow content with BGM and the reproduction timings of images and sound of the slideshow content with BGM are made coincide with each other readily without imposing a burden on the user, a method is available wherein information of meta data applied to sound data is used to make the reproduction time of images coincide with the reproduction time of sound.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate an example of data of BGM of a slideshow content with BGM. Referring first to FIG. 1A, BGM data 1 includes meta data 2 and sound data 3. The sound data 3 is data including information of a tune itself, and the meta data 2 is additional information to the sound data 3 and is formed from management information and so forth of the sound data 3. The meta data 2 illustrated in FIG. 1A includes information of tune name 4, player 5, composer 6 and reproduction time 7 of the sound data 3.
The BGM data 1 having such a configuration as described above is stored into a BGM data storage area 11 provided in such a storage section of an information processing apparatus which reproduces a slideshow content with BGM as seen in FIG. 1B. The BGM data storage area 11 includes a meta data storage area 12 for storing the meta data 2, and a sound data storage area 13 for storing the sound data 3.
In particular, the information processing apparatus which reproduces a slideshow content with BGM refers to the reproduction time 7 of the meta data 2 stored in the meta data storage area 12 to execute such a process as illustrated in a flow chart of FIG. 2 to produce an image content such that the reproduction time of images (image content) of a slideshow content with BGM may coincide with the production time of the sound data 3 to which the meta data 2 corresponds (reproduction time of a music content of the slideshow content with BGM).
An output data production process executed by the information processing apparatus which produces a slideshow content with BGM is described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 2.
At step S1, the information processing apparatus acquires meta data 2 of BGM data 1 designated by the user from the meta data storage area 12. At step S2, the information processing apparatus allocates an image content to the BGM data 1 based on the reproduction time 7 (reproduction time information) included in the meta data 2 to produce output data. At step S3, the information processing apparatus reproduces and supplies the produced output data to a displaying and outputting apparatus such as a monitor, a speaker or the like.
FIG. 3 illustrates a relationship between the reproduction times of a sound content and an image content of output data produced in such a manner as described above.
Referring to FIG. 3, a waveform 21 is an output waveform of the sound content along the time axis, and a reproduction time 22 of the sound content represents the period of time of reproduction from the head (time 0) to the tail (time T4) of the data. In other words, in the case of the sound content illustrated, the reproduction time 7 of the sound data 3 included in the meta data 2 of the BGM data 1 corresponds to the reproduction time 22.
The information processing apparatus performs allocation (scheduling) of still picture display to the sound content based on the information of the reproduction time 7 to allocate image data 31. The image data 31 is data of an image content for displaying still pictures A to E in such a schedule as illustrated in FIG. 3, and reproduction time 32 of the image data 31 coincides with the reproduction time 22 of the sound content.
However, the reproduction time 22 of the sound content includes time intervals applied intentionally by a producer of the sound data 3. The time intervals include a no-sound interval 23 at the head of the data (interval from time 0 to time T1), a fade-out interval 24 within which the sound decreases gradually (interval from time T2 to time T3) and another no-sound interval 25 at the tail of the data (interval from time T3 to time T4).
In particular, within the no-sound interval 23, although no sound is outputted, display regarding the still picture A is performed, and within the no-sound interval 25, although no sound is outputted, display regarding the still picture E is performed. Therefore, this slideshow content is low in completeness (amusing property) as a content and may possibly give an insufficient degree of satisfaction to the user who enjoys the slideshow content.
Further, since, also within the fade-out interval 24, display is performed in a similar manner as in the other intervals, the atmosphere of the sound content and the atmosphere of the image content do not coincide with each other, and there is the possibility that the degree of satisfaction of the user who enjoys the slideshow content may be low.
In this manner, such an information processing apparatus in which a slideshow application operates as disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1 or such a reproduction apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a subject to be solved in that it is impossible to make the reproduction time of images and the reproduction time of sound of a slideshow content with BGM coincide with each other accurately and to display images suitable for the atmosphere of the sound.